KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Kansas City

I recently visited this restaurant after having a great experience the first time I came with my brother. The staff recognized him from TikTok, and we were treated so well. Great service, friendly staff, and even what seemed to be the manager came out to greet us and gave us free crab legs. They told us to come back anytime, so I decided to return with my boyfriend and niece. Unfortunately, the experience this time was completely different…rude service, lack of attention, and overall terrible customer service.

From the moment we walked in, the girls at the front desk had an attitude, especially one named Joy. When we were seated, no one came to check on us for a long time. I understand weekends can be busy, but that’s no excuse for completely ignoring customers and making them wait forever to be tended to. What made it worse was that there were staff members, including the lady manager, just sitting at the bar talking and laughing while we sat there without any assistance. No one even turned on our stove or the iPad for ordering. I had to figure it out myself turn the iPad on and selecting our table, all of that…

The only person who finally helped us was the girl who brought our meat. She realized we hadn’t been served, and after I expressed my frustration, she went to talk to the manager. The manager barely said anything, just mumbled to another waiter, then rolled her eyes, which made it even more obvious that they didn’t care. They finally assigned us a server, and she was the sweetest, but I felt bad for her because she was running around handling multiple tables while other staff just stood around chatting.

What upsets me the most is that this restaurant clearly picks and chooses who they want to treat well. When I came with my brother, who is a well-known content creator, they were all over us, making sure we were taken care of. But when I came back as just a regular customer, they couldn’t be bothered. It’s fake, unprofessional, and shows that they don’t actually care about providing good service unless it benefits them.

To make things worse, when we were ready to leave, no one was at the front desk. Anyone could have walked out without paying because the staff was too busy hanging out in the back. When we finally got someone’s attention, Joy once again had an attitude and refused to check us out, saying we had to wait for our server (who was already overworked and running around). She could have easily handled it but chose not to.

What made this whole experience even more disappointing is that my family and I are also Asian Pacific Islanders, just like most of the staff. It hurt to be treated so poorly by our own people, as if we didn’t matter. There’s an unspoken understanding in our community about taking care of one another, but clearly, that didn’t apply here. Instead, they only cared about giving good service when they thought it would benefit them.

After this experience, I told my brother what happened, and he was just as disappointed as I was. He couldn’t believe that the same restaurant that went out of their way to serve him with fake kindness would turn around and treat his own family like we didn’t matter just because he wasn’t with us. That says a lot about this place.

This restaurant needs better management, proper training, and staff who actually care about doing their jobs. Customer service is everything, and based on this experience, I won’t be coming back. It’s disappointing to see a place with potential be run so poorly. If you only know how to treat social media influencers well but can’t provide basic respect to regular customers, you...

It's a really good deal for all you can eat hot pot and Korean BBQ. It's why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 3 because the food is really only a 3. I was a bit disappointed in the food quality and options. I did the BBQ and Hot pot for 45.99. You are on a timer which I feel lessons the atmosphere/experience. It's 2 hours, so I wouldn't normally eat that long anyway, but I also didn't enjoy having to check the clock and keep eating every item of something I ordered even if I didn't like it (leftover surcharge).

BBQ: I was most disappointed in this. The veggies were not sliced well enough to grill evenly. Most meats were also completely unseasoned and bland. All the meats were very thin except for the bulgogi, which was very good but also tough. The garlic shrimp was also great. Other then those two things I didn't care for the BBQ options. None of the thicker cut meats were marinated or seasoned at all (or at least they didn't say they were in the menu) so I skipped them.

Hot pot: This was better then the BBQ but still not great. I got the schezuan which was pleasant spicy and savory. I could have really used a slotted spoon to retrieve cooked items. The veggies had great root options, like Lotus and daikins, ok mushroom selection, but a poor greens selection. Spinach really didn't work. Baby bok choy was the only choy, and Romain lettuce was a choice. They had nappa but it looked strange in the photo so I skipped it. Could have really used some green onions, leeks, or other flavorful greens. Hot pot meats were much better. They had a variety of seafood, meatballs, beef, pork, and chicken. All the very thinly cut meats worked great in the hot pot. The noodle selection was bad. They only had 5 kinds and rice cakes. The "fresh" noodles also come out frozen.

Sauce bar - it's lovely with a great selection. All kinds of vinegars, oils, herbs, spices, as well as cold side dishes. I mixed and matched two dipping sauces but when that's the only flavor you are getting each bite it becomes a bit one note. They also only had a couple curated sauces so how well this works depends on how good you are making sauces. I wish they had a sample sauce plate so you could try at least 4 sauces instead of individual bowls as well.

Service was very good. They were quick to bring out orders and take away used dishes.

If you've never had hot pot or BBQ and want to try this I recommend giving it a go. Bit for a little more money you can get a phenomenal BBQ at Gyu kaku and a great Hot Pot...

DO NOT GO HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO LEAVE ANGRY AND HUNGRY!!! When we arrived (for my mother in laws special day) we asked the host if we upgraded to dinner could we have crab legs. He stated "Yes" so we all did. We also HAD to ALL order soup since one person wanted it. We were told they will just pour out the other two since they didn't want hot pot. Understandable. When our "server" came over she said, "I'm Julia, the bartender, I guess I'll be your server today apparently" She rushed us through the process and said, "Just do what I told you cuz other people do it wrong and get the wrong shit" We told her that we came for crab legs and she said, "well if you don't see them on there we don't have them" I told her that we had upgraded to dinner and she said, "Like i JUST told y'all, we don't have them." During our meal, mu husband dropped a half of bite of rice off his chop sticks, Julia said, "Let me find out you don't know how to eat" WHAT?!?! I asked her to take off dinner upgrade and waited for a table touch that never happened. The food was just OK. They had the stove up so high that after two minutes the meat started to burn. My mother in law turned the heat to medium but that didn't help much. The pan kept turning black. We NEVER got to speak to a manager even after asking. I emailed for a manager to call me back to no avail. I then called the restaurant and spoke to the general manager. I told him that i had been there on Tuesday and wanted to discuss my visit. HE HUNG UP ON ME!!! When I called back they kept picking up the phone and hanging it up the sent me to voicemail. SO UNPROFESSIONAL! I've worked in hospitality management for most of my career and I would never have guests leave the way we did. i would have tried to make them somewhat happy. This place will not last in the Legends area. I've worked in this area for years, I have never had this kind of experience and been treated like this. The gentleman at the front desk even said that he never told me we could upgrade for crab legs. I am...